Friday's Playlist: Twin Guitar Attacks



We've published plenty of playlists featuring the guitar, but this one features even more guitar. Because one clearly isn't enough.

When discussing dual guitar leads, the rock aficionado's mind always jumps to Gotham/Robertson, Powell/Turner, Verlaine/Lloyd, Allman/Betts, etc. and obviously this playlist includes Thin Lizzy, Wishbone Ash, Television or the Allman Brothers. And how could we leave out Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner's intro to Sweet Jane on Lou Reed's Rock n' Roll Animal? Classics are classics for a reason.

But not all of the selections here are lead guitar harmonies. Sometimes they're unison. And sometimes they're playing different lines at the same time, much like the reeds and horns in a Dixieland Jazz group. Which is why we've also included a few less obvious artists like Wilco-offshoot Loose Fur or Alice Cooper's quasi-prog masterpiece Halo of Flies. We were conflicted as to which King Crimson number to include so as to feature the interlocking guitars of Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew: certainly Frame By Frame was the blueprint for a lot their guitar interactions and the template for a lot of the Math-Rock that would follow but we decided to land on the equally jaw-dropping ContruKction of Light.

Some songs in the playlist even have more than one guitar... Lynyrd Skynyrd of course pioneered the three-guitar attack. And if three isn't enough, well, you have Diarrhea Planet who had no less than four guitarists in their ranks.

On the other hand, some songs feature several guitars but played by the same guitarist: hearing Brian May harmonize with himself is a thing of beauty.

Again, this playlist is only a starting point and there are many more examples, some of which we may feature in subsequent playlists. Let us know which ones you'd include.

Enjoy, comment, share!

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